For one seven day period I was on the river six days, that was awesome. I worked Thursday and Friday for Appalachian Bible College and then two days for ACE and then my cousin Mike, Cephus and Lorraine's oldest, came down for a visit and we went on the river Monday afternoon, and then I got a call late Tuesday to work an express afternoon trip on Wednesday at ACE. Six out of seven days made my shoulders a little sore, but that was a good sore. Makes you know you're alive and well.
Oh yeah, the new job, I applied for and got the job as Child Nutrition/Operations Director for the County. It is considered a step up. Food Service is something that I am pretty familiar with and it should be less hours and less stress than the Bus Business. We'll see. I keep telling everyone that they have to keep moving me around because I am so screwed up that they can only leave me in one place so long. Although I did stay in the bus garage for four years. Four years is the longest I've held any job. In fact I've held two jobs for that long in my life - The Principal at Emmanuel Christian School and the Bus Garage. Unless, you count raft guiding which I've done for 15 years. I know that I was in the Corps for 20 years, but I had many different jobs in that 20 year period. I have a list of them for my memoirs.
Tips - no tips at ABC, two pictures of Andrew Jackson and one of Alexander Hamilton on Saturday, that is just as good as one picture of US Grant. Then this past Saturday I got another picture of Andrew Jackson and three of Abraham Lincoln. Sharon was so impressed with all of those pictures that she asked me for them and of course I gave them up.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Annual River Trip
Sunday, JB, Patrick and Isaac came down and we finally got our annual "Fathers" Day trip in. Here is a link to JB's Blog about Boating in WV.
http://creekwv.blogspot.com/2009/07/its-family-tradition.html
It has a nice picture of the four of us in Fire Creek on the Upper New. We set up the oar frame on my small boat and rowed the uppers with the boys enjoying the water. It was a bit chilly for mid July, but it has been that way this year. They spent the night and went hope Monday morning. Isaac just turned two.
http://creekwv.blogspot.com/2009/07/its-family-tradition.html
It has a nice picture of the four of us in Fire Creek on the Upper New. We set up the oar frame on my small boat and rowed the uppers with the boys enjoying the water. It was a bit chilly for mid July, but it has been that way this year. They spent the night and went hope Monday morning. Isaac just turned two.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mike and Kim
It was great to see Mike and Kim, we hadn't seen them for quite awhile.
They stayed in one of the cabins at ACE with a couple of friends. They went horseback riding and did a canopy tour at ACE. Sunday evening we went to the New River Gorge and went rappelling. I love doing that, but it made me a little nervous because I haven't been in a awhile and there is very little room for mistakes in that sport. If the boat flips on the river, people take a swim, but a mistake when you are rappelling can be fatal.
I thought of all the people that I will really, really miss in the bus and custodian business, but then I wondered if there were any that I wouldn't miss at all and I thought of 10 people so fast that it surprised me.
One thing about wearing a long sleeve shirt when I raft is that my hands get tan and look a lot darker than my arms. Seems funny at times.
Sharon's family reunion is this weekend and she is heading up to Clarksburg on Friday, I have a River trip Friday afternoon and will drive up Saturday morning. Sharon is working a FLEX schedule, 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days.
All of the Director's at work got a new Blackberry, you can read email and surf the internet on your phone. Lots of folks call it a crackberry because it is so addicting, as addicting as Crack cocaine. At first I had it set so that it rang for both emails and phone calls, but that only lasted one day and now it is set just to ring for phone calls.
Last week Sharon and I went and picked Blackberries and got about two gallons. She made a cobbler that was superb. Saturday night when I got home from the river she had made stuffed peppers, squash and that cobbler. The peppers and squash came from the garden.
I know that this is more rambling and aimless than normal, please forgive me.
They stayed in one of the cabins at ACE with a couple of friends. They went horseback riding and did a canopy tour at ACE. Sunday evening we went to the New River Gorge and went rappelling. I love doing that, but it made me a little nervous because I haven't been in a awhile and there is very little room for mistakes in that sport. If the boat flips on the river, people take a swim, but a mistake when you are rappelling can be fatal.
I thought of all the people that I will really, really miss in the bus and custodian business, but then I wondered if there were any that I wouldn't miss at all and I thought of 10 people so fast that it surprised me.
One thing about wearing a long sleeve shirt when I raft is that my hands get tan and look a lot darker than my arms. Seems funny at times.
Sharon's family reunion is this weekend and she is heading up to Clarksburg on Friday, I have a River trip Friday afternoon and will drive up Saturday morning. Sharon is working a FLEX schedule, 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days.
All of the Director's at work got a new Blackberry, you can read email and surf the internet on your phone. Lots of folks call it a crackberry because it is so addicting, as addicting as Crack cocaine. At first I had it set so that it rang for both emails and phone calls, but that only lasted one day and now it is set just to ring for phone calls.
Last week Sharon and I went and picked Blackberries and got about two gallons. She made a cobbler that was superb. Saturday night when I got home from the river she had made stuffed peppers, squash and that cobbler. The peppers and squash came from the garden.
I know that this is more rambling and aimless than normal, please forgive me.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Wet and Dry Money
I realize that I skipped a week. I just thought that I'd give everyone a break. I hope that everyone had a very Happy Independence Day.
Today is Isaac's 2nd birthday. JB told me that they were going to celebrate it at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. That's a beautiful spot to have a birthday celebration, not that a two year old cares about things like that, but I hope that Isaac had a good day, Patrick was lucky he got to be there also and it wasn't even his birthday. See, there are some advantages to having a younger brother. For awhile Patrick and I were trading emails, with his Dad's help and that is a real joy. JB - that's a hint.
Guides love to get a tip at the end of the river trip and they don't mind making it obvious. I admit that I like getting tips, but I do figure that I'm getting paid to do something that I love to do, so that is reward enough. But a tip does say that you gave your guests a good trip and they want to show their appreciation. When I trip lead I use the line about if you want to show your guides your appreciation they seem to really like pictures of founding fathers and dead Presidents, so it would be nice to give them some of those. I've gotten a $3 tip this year, a $4 tip and a $9 dollar tip. That is way too many pictures of George Washington. I prefer pictures of Andrew Jackson or Alexander Hamilton. I got a picture of US Grant last Friday, my first good tip of the year. Guides really like pictures of Benjamin Franklin, but that is a rare treat. I've heard a lot of appeals over the years about tips, some say remember what we taught you about your paddle, it has a shaft and a tip, now you have to decide which of those you want to give your guide, more - if you enjoyed your ride, tip your guide, another - our guides don't know how to spell gratuity but they will sure accept one if you had a good trip. One company would hand guests an envelope with their car keys at the end of the trip that said guide tip and a spot to write in the guides name, that is a very strong hint. ACE doesn't push guide tips as much as other companies. Working for Alpine at Appalachian Bible College a tip was a very rare occasion. Oh yeah, wet and dry money, when someone hands you wet money at the end of a trip it says to me that they came with money in their pocket and were prepared to give you a set amount regardless of how good the trip was. I prefer dry money, to me that means that they have actually thought about it after they got back and decided on an amount big or small that they wanted to give to show their appreciation. I do think that the economy being down has a lot to do with the size of the tips this year.
All last year I had 22 trips and it is only the beginning of July and I already have 21 trips logged in my logbook. I am loving it.
Like checklists, I like keeping logbooks. I have a log book of my flight times, a log book of my scuba dives, a log book of hikes, a log book of every river trip. They provide rich information and memories.
We've been getting a lot of cucumbers and squash out of the garden. There are also new potatoes and green onions. I can't wait for the tomatoes, we have lots of green tomatoes, but no red ones yet. That first tomato sandwich is going to taste great.
We had company over the 4th of July Holiday. Debbie, Sharon's oldest sister and her husband Bob came down from Clarksburg and spent three days with us. Then on Saturday Marci surprised us with a quick trip down. I was good to see Aidan and Sheridan. Marci, Happy 29th birthday yesterday. I hope you had a very Happy one. The town of Fayetteville really does put on a big celebration for the 4th of July, it lasts all week, with activities every day. There was a carnival across the street from us and Sharon and I took Aidan and Sheridan over to it. I'd love to have had a video of Aidan going down the big slide, he was afraid so the attendant had to go down with him and he had a look of sheer terror on his face the entire way down and once he got to the bottom the look of relief that "I made it" I remember when JB was just a little feller, we allowed him to go up a giant slide and he came down his head just a bobbing, I thought he was going to break his neck, no terror on his face, when he hit the bottom he grabbed his burlap bag and was headed back to the top before anyone could even get to him. Aidan and I went on a spinning ride and Grandpop got a little dizzy spinning that car so fast. Sharon noticed how green my face looked.
We would love to have anyone and everyone come down for the 4th of July. Fayetteville has a 30 minute fireworks display that is mighty fine, mighty fine. Paid for by charging folks with out of state tags $150 for 1 mile over the speed limit. So if you do come on down, drive slow, don't be in such a hurry.
Well I've rambled aimlessly way too long.
Today is Isaac's 2nd birthday. JB told me that they were going to celebrate it at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. That's a beautiful spot to have a birthday celebration, not that a two year old cares about things like that, but I hope that Isaac had a good day, Patrick was lucky he got to be there also and it wasn't even his birthday. See, there are some advantages to having a younger brother. For awhile Patrick and I were trading emails, with his Dad's help and that is a real joy. JB - that's a hint.
Guides love to get a tip at the end of the river trip and they don't mind making it obvious. I admit that I like getting tips, but I do figure that I'm getting paid to do something that I love to do, so that is reward enough. But a tip does say that you gave your guests a good trip and they want to show their appreciation. When I trip lead I use the line about if you want to show your guides your appreciation they seem to really like pictures of founding fathers and dead Presidents, so it would be nice to give them some of those. I've gotten a $3 tip this year, a $4 tip and a $9 dollar tip. That is way too many pictures of George Washington. I prefer pictures of Andrew Jackson or Alexander Hamilton. I got a picture of US Grant last Friday, my first good tip of the year. Guides really like pictures of Benjamin Franklin, but that is a rare treat. I've heard a lot of appeals over the years about tips, some say remember what we taught you about your paddle, it has a shaft and a tip, now you have to decide which of those you want to give your guide, more - if you enjoyed your ride, tip your guide, another - our guides don't know how to spell gratuity but they will sure accept one if you had a good trip. One company would hand guests an envelope with their car keys at the end of the trip that said guide tip and a spot to write in the guides name, that is a very strong hint. ACE doesn't push guide tips as much as other companies. Working for Alpine at Appalachian Bible College a tip was a very rare occasion. Oh yeah, wet and dry money, when someone hands you wet money at the end of a trip it says to me that they came with money in their pocket and were prepared to give you a set amount regardless of how good the trip was. I prefer dry money, to me that means that they have actually thought about it after they got back and decided on an amount big or small that they wanted to give to show their appreciation. I do think that the economy being down has a lot to do with the size of the tips this year.
All last year I had 22 trips and it is only the beginning of July and I already have 21 trips logged in my logbook. I am loving it.
Like checklists, I like keeping logbooks. I have a log book of my flight times, a log book of my scuba dives, a log book of hikes, a log book of every river trip. They provide rich information and memories.
We've been getting a lot of cucumbers and squash out of the garden. There are also new potatoes and green onions. I can't wait for the tomatoes, we have lots of green tomatoes, but no red ones yet. That first tomato sandwich is going to taste great.
We had company over the 4th of July Holiday. Debbie, Sharon's oldest sister and her husband Bob came down from Clarksburg and spent three days with us. Then on Saturday Marci surprised us with a quick trip down. I was good to see Aidan and Sheridan. Marci, Happy 29th birthday yesterday. I hope you had a very Happy one. The town of Fayetteville really does put on a big celebration for the 4th of July, it lasts all week, with activities every day. There was a carnival across the street from us and Sharon and I took Aidan and Sheridan over to it. I'd love to have had a video of Aidan going down the big slide, he was afraid so the attendant had to go down with him and he had a look of sheer terror on his face the entire way down and once he got to the bottom the look of relief that "I made it" I remember when JB was just a little feller, we allowed him to go up a giant slide and he came down his head just a bobbing, I thought he was going to break his neck, no terror on his face, when he hit the bottom he grabbed his burlap bag and was headed back to the top before anyone could even get to him. Aidan and I went on a spinning ride and Grandpop got a little dizzy spinning that car so fast. Sharon noticed how green my face looked.
We would love to have anyone and everyone come down for the 4th of July. Fayetteville has a 30 minute fireworks display that is mighty fine, mighty fine. Paid for by charging folks with out of state tags $150 for 1 mile over the speed limit. So if you do come on down, drive slow, don't be in such a hurry.
Well I've rambled aimlessly way too long.
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